Submerged Will Surface On PlayStation 4 This Year

This morning, Uppercut Games announced its latest project, Submerged, will be bringing its haunting exploration adventure to the PlayStation 4 later this year.

Uppercut Games’ Ed Orman visited the PlayStation Blog today to announce the impending arrival of Submerged on Sony’s console. While many games tend to focus on shooting or stabbing countless enemies to death, Submerged takes a decidedly different route, dropping a young pair of siblings into a sunken city on a quest for survival.

Here's how Orman describes the title:

Submerged is a serene adventure set in a city that has mysteriously become flooded and overgrown. It follows the story of siblings Miku and Taku—the pair arrive in this strange place in a boat and Miku has to carry her wounded brother Taku to shelter before she can start gathering the supplies she’ll need to nurse him back to health.

Unfortunately, that’s far easier said than done.

While her brother is left behind in bad shape, Miku must explore this abandoned metropolis on the quest for items that may save his live. A player-controlled boat will transport Miku between major locations but, once you’ve found some solid ground, you’ll need to shamble up through the buildings to locate your objectives. This sounds like a mix between Uncharted's exploration mechanics and the somber tone of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. And I’m all for that. There are few things more refreshing than a game that lets you explore its world with very simple motivations and, as far as we’ve heard, no threat of bloodthirsty monsters or enemy soldiers.

Along with helping Taku, your journey will also start to shed some light on the mysteries of the in-game world and, more specifically, this lost city.

Here's Orman's summation of the game's narrative:

As she traverses the sunken metropolis, Miku starts to uncover the secrets of how this world came to be. And in turn, we begin to learn about Miku and Taku: what drove them to this mysterious city, where the only inhabitants appear to be malformed copies of the native sea-life?

As for that more relaxed tone I was talking about, Submerged actually takes the game in a direction few dare to try. It focuses on narrative and exploration above all else. According to Orman, the gameplay was designed for players to take their time. There's no need to worry about death, so players can put their feet up and enjoy the storyline.

After spending the last few weeks completely absorbed by Bloodborne, which is the polar opposite of what Orman described, Submerged sounds like such a nice change of pace.